Safety of electronic cigarettes trigger concerns

Have you ever imagined that one day you would be able to obtain your everyday nicotine shot without inhaling harmful gazes and nicotine at all?  

That day has come. Chinese manufacturers have once again proved to be world leading creators. They have resolved this problem by  inventing an electronic cigarette, the device that contains nicotine in a cigarette-resembling slim-shaped white body, but there would be no chemical additives that are constantly related to cause lungs cancer and other health problems.

This is just one of thousands advertisements that can be found everywhere nowadays – from internet to magazines. However, with rapidly growing popularity of electronic cigarettes in many corners of the world from Australia to Canada, still there is no scientific evidence or official approval for usage of electronic cigarettes in the capacity of nicotine-replacement and smoking stoppage therapies in the same row with sprays, nicotine candies and gums and patches. We are still not confident whether the quantity of nicotine produced by these cigarettes is safe enough.   

"I think that these particular devices are being marketed with the intention of keeping people smoking...They’re not smoking them to try to quit. And so I think that that’s a really big issue."  Shelly-Ann Lawrence, a scientist at San Antonio University’s Health Sciences department, told SBNTV.

The marketing strategy for e-cigarettes accomplished by the overwhelming majority of producers and distributors of these devices vary from proclaiming electronic cigarettes a latest, advanced and even “magical” instrument in the struggle with smoking addiction, to modest and simple advertisements of electronic cigs as a healthier and safer replacement to smoking conventional cigarettes. Many of them have declared that the World Health Organization has approved the use of electronic cigarettes. The latter statement was sharply denied and massively criticized by officials.

World Health Organization made a statement last autumn declaring that it had no scientific evidence at their disposal proving the manufacturers’ affirmations that the electronic cigarettes contributed to people giving up smoking. On the contrary, WHO officials have insisted that they had not conducted any peer-reviewed researches or rigorous studies proving that the e-cigarettes were a safe, healthy and effective nicotine substitution or smoking cessation therapy.

Electronic cigarettes are very popular in the Great Britain; with pub owners consider them as a tool to pass strict public smoking bans that prevent people from smoking conventional cigarettes in public places.

INSTEAD Electronic Cigarettes, an American based company that sells electronic cigarettes marketing them as a smoking replacement demands around $180 for a beginner unit, which consists of an e-cigarette, a rechargeable battery, a charger and cable, five nicotine cartridges and 20 refills.

An e-cigarette resembles the conventional one in many ways it even has an amber light at the tip of devise that looks like the burning embers of a common cigarette. It includes a place where to store liquid nicotine, which is heated and then inhaled.  

Customers may also select among tobacco or menthol flavors.

However, according to several experts, their concerns are linked with the fact that there is no standard in the quantity of nicotine delivered by e-cigarettes, whereas in other smoking replacement therapies like gum or patches the rate of nicotine is strictly limited, approved and proven to be effective at helping smokers give up this habit.